CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Jose Rene Alaniz, 43, has been sentenced to 260 months in federal prison following his conviction for sexual exploitation of a child, commonly referred to as production of child pornography, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. Alaniz pleaded guilty to the charge March 1, 2012, further admitting he used the name “Jonathan Rendon” as an alias to communicate with numerous children on Internet-based social networking sites.

The sentencing hearing began on May 29, 2012, and continued today, during which time two victims provided testimony. After serving the 260-month term ordered by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos, Alaniz will be on supervised release for life and he will also have to register as a sex offender.

On Aug. 16, 2011, a concerned father of a 12-year-old daughter reported the discovery of inappropriate messages on her phone from an individual calling himself “Jonathan Rendon,” claiming to be 18 years old. Alaniz was requesting that the girl send him naked photos of herself. The victim’s father allowed detectives with the Corpus Christi Police Department’s (CCPD) Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) access his daughter’s accounts and online identity. ICAC detectives began communicating with Alaniz via the Internet and text messaging, during which he repeatedly expressed his sexual interest in children and his desire to receive sexually explicit photographs from a child he knew to be 12 years old.

CCPD-ICAC enlisted the help of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to conduct a joint investigation of the unlawful activities of Alaniz. When the police told Alaniz the girl did not have a camera with which to take the nude photos he was requesting, he agreed to provide one. On Oct. 5, 2011, Alaniz was filmed dropping off a camera at the pre-arranged location for the child’s use. The next day, federal search warrants were executed on his home and place of employment and numerous electronic media storage devices were seized. An examination of those devices revealed that Alaniz had victimized other children.

Alaniz has been in custody since his arrest where he will remain pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The case, prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lance Duke, was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."